The Mina Murray Series Bundle, A Dracula Retelling: Books 1-3

by L. D. Goffigan

  “Thank you,” I whispered, both moved by his words and praying that he was right; that there was hope for Jonathan.

  We fell into a solemn silence. Seward and Abe soon came up onto the deck to join us, and the captain approached us. Captain William Harper was a grizzled man in his fifties, with graying black hair and a thick untamed beard. He had the rough weathered look of a man who spent more of his life at sea than on land, but his gray eyes were amiable, and I took an instant liking to him.

  “Thank you for providing us transport to Calais,” Arthur said politely, giving him a grateful smile.

  “I am happy to help. Your father was a friend,” Captain Harper replied. “You and your friends are my honored guests. I must warn you, these skies have me nervous. There was no sign of a storm when we arrived this morning. I’m certain we can get across the Channel before it hits. We should arrive in Calais later this afternoon. I hope you get to your relative in time,” he added, his voice softening with sympathy.

  Arthur had informed Captain Harper that we needed to get to France as quickly as possible to visit a sick relative. It was a necessary lie, as we could hardly tell him the real reason for our need to leave England so hastily.

  “We hope so as well, thank you,” Arthur said, holding Captain Harper’s eyes, giving away no indication of the lie.

  “George will come and fetch you from your cabins for a late breakfast,” Captain Harper said. “I should warn you, I have a large crew for this journey, and many of them have taken ill with fever; they’re mostly confined to the sailors’ berths. You are all free to move about the ship at will, just avoid the berths, the illness is contagious.”

  After he left us, we went down to his cabin to talk without the risk of being overheard. The cabin was the largest of the three we’d settled in, yet it could still barely fit all three of us. Lucy was sleeping when we entered, her body curled protectively beneath the thin blanket, facing away from us. Arthur sat down on the bed next to her, careful not to disturb her sleeping form. Seward and I remained next to the door, while Abe moved over to the small desk and perched on its edge.

  “There is still much we do not know,” Abe said. “When I experiment, I begin with what I do know.”

  “We do the same with our investigations,” Seward said. “Start with the facts and work backwards.”

  “Well, we know that Jonathan was abducted from the Langham last night by vampires. Who else was taken?” I asked.

  “Nicholas Lewiston, Edward Johnson, and Fannie Herman,” Seward replied, reciting from memory. “I went to Scotland Yard before I came home last night to see if there was any new information. Mister Lewiston and Johnson are solicitors; Fannie Herman was a maid in the cloakroom. Their families are devastated. They don’t know why anyone would abduct them, and they doubted they’d just leave London without telling anyone.”

  I frowned, baffled. What would vampires want with a cloakroom maid and three solicitors?

  “Jonathan’s law partner wanted to discuss something with him, right before he was abducted,” I said, recalling how Peter Hawkins had pulled him aside. “And he mentioned that there were robberies at his office.”

  “Can you send a wire to Mister Hawkins when we get to Calais—find out what they discussed?” Seward asked. “If any of it’s related, it could help us determine why he was taken.”

  I nodded, and Abe continued, speaking quickly now, as if his words were scrambling to keep pace with his thoughts. “The Ripper murders go back several years, and they are still occurring, unbeknownst to the public. The victims are the poor and wealthy alike. Right around the time the Ripper murders began, there were accounts of other murders and disappearances all throughout Europe. Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam . . . a fortnight ago, Lucy was bitten by a vampire. Now, there could be many explanations. The murders could just be that—murders. I know from lore, my research, and witness accounts that vampires need blood to survive. Naturally, they would kill their victims to obtain their blood—and there is reproduction, of course. All biological forms reproduce, that could explain why they have moved from the countryside to the cities. More humans to transform.”

  “Why the abductions?” I asked. “It’s not necessary to abduct someone for the transformation to take hold—look at Lucy.”

  Another silence fell, and I closed my eyes to concentrate. I recalled a technique Father had once taught me when I struggled to solve a difficult mathematical equation one of my tutors had me solve. Use the heuristic method, Father had told me. Think of the simplest solution. With every problem, it is always the simplest solution.

  Abductions, murders, reproduction, the pack mentality of vampires, the—

  My eyes flew open as the answer to my question came to me. How could I have not seen this before? It was the simplest answer to our questions, but the most horrifying one.

  I recalled Lucy’s words from the night before. We need them.

  “Godsamme,” Abe whispered, a Dutch oath he rarely uttered. His stunned gaze met mine. He had come to the same conclusion.

  “What?” Seward asked, looking back and forth between me and Abe with alarm.

  “They’ve moved from the countrysides to cities,” I said, my voice trembling with dread. “Because they’re increasing their numbers.”

  “Yes, we’ve gathered that,” Seward said shortly. “What is the—”

  “What reason would they have to multiply so expeditiously?” Abe asked. “Only four years ago, Robert, Mina and I learned of the murders in the Transylvanian countryside. But there were very few—if any—mentions of actual disappearances. During the past three years, the unexplained disappearances have dramatically increased. Think. What possible reason could they have to abduct so many? We know from Lucy that the transformation takes time. It is obvious that they want to increase their numbers. Why so quickly? To what end?”

  Arthur and Seward’s eyes locked with ours as they were hit with the same realization. Arthur blanched, and Seward leaned back heavily against the wall, burying his face in his hands.

  “Bloody hell,” Seward whispered. This time, he was too shocked to apologize to me for the oath. “No.”

  “They’re building an army,” I said, finally speaking aloud the terrible words that we were all thinking.

  11

  Invasion

  On the deck above, the ship’s crew shouted directions to each other as it began to pull away from the docks to drift down the churning waters of the Thames towards the Channel. But the captain’s cabin was filled with a roaring silence.

  “The only reason to have an army is to invade—and we can’t stop a bloody invasion on our own,” Seward said, splintering the silence. “If this theory’s right, then everything’s changed.”

  “I agree,” I said. “But it hasn’t happened yet, which means we have time to stop it.”

  “Did you not hear me?” Seward demanded, his voice rising with incredulity. “How can we possibly—”

  “Every army has a leader. If you destroy the leader—” I began.

  “You destroy the army,” Abe concluded. “If there is a leader, we can attempt to confirm his identity through Lucy. Our goal is still the same, Jack,” he said to Seward. “We rescue Jonathan and whoever else they’ve taken—and kill the creature who abducted them. If the abductor and this leader are one and the same, killing him can possibly scatter his followers and prevent an invasion before it happens. By then, perhaps we will have gathered enough proof of vampires to involve the authorities.”

  “If we fail—” Seward began.

  “We can’t,” I interrupted, shivering at the thought.

  “But if we do,” Seward repeated, scowling at me. “I want a safeguard. No, my colleagues won’t believe me now if I tell them an invasion of vampires is likely upon us. But I want to at least send them a wire warning them of an imminent threat to London. I’ll think of a way to word it. That way they can be vigilant and prepared.”

  Abe and I nodded our agreement. Sewar
d visibly relaxed, though he still looked disturbed.

  “Arthur,” Abe said. Arthur had been so silent that I’d almost forgotten he was there. He looked dazed with trepidation at our exchange, and shakily met Abe’s eyes. “I need to wake Lucy to communicate through her.”

  Arthur seemed to emerge from his daze, turning towards Lucy to wake her, but she began to stir on her own. We all stilled as she sat up, turning to face us.

  I had to stifle a gasp at the sight of her. The whites of her eyes had again gone black, and she seemed to look right through us.

  “Arthur, step back,” Abe said, speaking slowly and calmly, though his voice wavered. Arthur was staring at his wife in frozen shock, but he obliged Abe, stumbling aback from the bed as Abe stepped tentatively forward, pulling the silver locket from his coat pocket. I noticed that one hand had strayed behind his back, clutching the hilt of a knife that was nestled in his back pocket.

  “Lucy,” Abe said. “Are you there?”

  “She’s gone,” Lucy expelled on a sigh, her voice light as a feather. “It’s only me now. Me and my brethren. Your Lucy will never return to you.”

  Her brethren? Dread stirred within me at her words. Arthur sucked in his breath, his face going white, while Seward stiffened, clenching his hands into fists at his sides.

  Abe was the only one of us who appeared calm. Keeping his eyes trained on her, he lifted up the locket to her eye level; but she paid it no mind, her black eyes intent on his face.

  “You have a leader,” Abe pressed. “Who is he?”

  Lucy smiled, the sight a horrible thing, revealing her unnaturally sharp teeth.

  “The last of the Old Families . . . two as one,” Lucy whispered. “All will be made new again,” she added cryptically, a delirious smile spreading across her face.

  I shuddered at her ominous words. I still wanted to ask her about Jonathan—why he’d been taken and if he was unharmed, but the threat of violence in her eyes held me back, and I was fearful for Abe. He was within striking distance of her, and she was unrestrained.

  “I know what you desire,” she continued, her voice dangerous as she looked at Abe. “But we will not be stopped.”

  “What are—” Abe began, but he abruptly went stiff, his arms limply falling to his sides, the locket clattering to the floor.

  I realized with horror that she had somehow taken control of him, and had put him under some sort of paralysis. I recalled the paralysis Abe and I had been put under the night of Father’s death. The same thing was being done to Abe now; I was certain of it.

  “Lucy!” Arthur cried, stumbling forward. “Lucy, stop it! Come back to me! Lucy!”

  But Lucy’s eyes never left Abe’s, and I saw her eyes slide hungrily to his throat.

  No, I thought in a panic, instinctively lunging forward. I was unarmed, my kukri knives were stowed in my cabin, so I moved towards the knife in Abe’s back pocket. But Arthur lurched forward to grab my arm, holding me back.

  “Let me go—” I cried, struggling in his grasp.

  “You will not harm her!” Arthur shouted.

  “Arthur, that’s not your bloody wife!” Seward shouted, darting forward to reach for Abe’s knife.

  Our commotion had caught Lucy’s attention, and her scrutiny shifted away from Abe and towards us.

  As soon as her eyes left him, Abe was released from his paralysis, and before Seward or I could reach him, he moved quickly, lunging forward to inject a syringe he had hidden in his hand into the soft flesh of her neck. She let out a vicious snarl as Seward scrambled forward to hold her down, and Abe injected her with yet another dosage of the sedative. She finally went still, her eyes glazing over before fluttering shut, her breathing painful and ragged as she fell into a deep sleep.

  Arthur sank to his knees, closing his eyes as Abe and Seward secured her wrists to the bedposts with handcuffs that Seward had brought with him. When they stepped back, Arthur spoke, still eyeing her with unease.

  “Abraham,” he whispered. “Is my wife gone?”

  Abe stepped forward, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “Yes,” he replied. “I believe we just witnessed the last stage of her transformation. She is no longer your Lucy.”

  Arthur pressed his hand to his mouth and began to weep. It was a heartbreaking sight, and once again my heart ached for him as he raised tearful eyes to Abe. Yet I couldn’t disagree with Abe’s conclusion. There had been no traces of humanity in Lucy’s black eyes.

  “I had hope,” Arthur said, when his tears subsided and he climbed back to his feet. “That we could cure her somehow.”

  “Do not blame yourself, Arthur,” Abe said, his eyes heavy with regret. “I should never have insisted that you bring her.”

  “Nor should I,” I said, feeling a pang of guilt as I recalled how I had convinced him to bring Lucy. “I’m so sorry, Arthur.”

  “Once we arrive in Calais, please allow me to pay for your passage back to London.” Abe said.

  “That will not be necessary. I–I do not believe she will make it that far. I cannot keep her restrained in the company of others. We will attract too much attention.”

  “We can find you an inn in Calais,” Abe said, after a brief pause. “Take the time you feel is necessary.”

  He met Arthur’s eyes, his dark meaning clear. Arthur was going to kill the creature that his wife had become.

  “If you need help, I can—” Abe continued with great difficulty, but Arthur held up his hand.

  “No,” Arthur said. “It has to be me. I am her husband. It . . . it will break my heart, but it is what she would have wanted.”

  My eyes slid towards Lucy’s sleeping form. In her slumber, I could see traces of the beautiful human woman she’d once been, and I was pierced with a pang of sorrow for her and Arthur. But trepidation lurked beneath my empathy. What if Jonathan’s been turned? I wondered. I had to get to him before that could happen.

  There was a knock at the door, and Abe had the wherewithal to quickly cover Lucy’s handcuffs with blankets and a pillow before Seward swung open the door.

  George stood there, looking surprised to find us all in the cabin.

  “There’s food in the wardroom,” he said, his tone polite despite his obvious puzzlement. “Captain wanted me ta inform ya the storm’s almost upon us . . . couldn’t avoid it. The wind’s pushing us off course towards the North Sea. We’ll be delayed in getting ta Calais. Rest of the journey’ll be a bit choppy.”

  I turned to glance out the small cabin window. I had been so distracted by our discussion and then Lucy’s near attack that I’d not noticed the now darkened sky and gray choppy waters of the sea. My heart plummeted. The longer our delay, the longer it would take to get to Jonathan.

  George left, and we started to file out after him, but Arthur remained behind.

  “You should not stay in here alone,” Abe said, looking anxiously at Lucy’s unconscious form. “Let Seward or I—”

  “I want to spend what little time I have left with her, even if she is lost to me,” Arthur replied, his eyes filled with anguish. “I have the morphia sedative and . . . and one of your knives just in case.”

  We reluctantly left him behind, making our way across the corridor to the wardroom. We had it to ourselves, and a small meal of coffee, biscuits, and marmalade had been set up for us at the long table, somehow managing to stay in place despite the rocking of the ship.

  As we ate, my mind kept returning to Lucy’s transformation and her ominous words.

  “What do you think Lucy meant?” I asked. “Last of the Old Families? Her brethren?”

  “I think she confirmed your theory,” Seward replied. “Those vamp—” he stopped himself, closing his eyes. “I can’t even say the bloody word. Sorry,” he added quickly to me, as soon as he uttered the oath. “Vampires are planning to take over, and they have a leader.”

  “If we could just confirm the name of their leader,” I said. “When we’re on land, perhaps we can
get more information from Lu—”

  “We cannot risk communicating with her anymore,” Abe interjected. “The sedative barely worked on her and it is the strongest one I have access to. I cannot control her through hypnosis anymore.”

  I reluctantly fell silent; he was right. I had come very close to using Abe’s knife against her. But I felt a rush of helplessness. Lucy had been my only way of keeping track of Jonathan. I could only pray that she had set us in the right direction.

  “What we need to know is how to kill them,” Seward said. “Besides silver, what’re their weaknesses?”

  “The villagers in Transylvania mentioned crosses, garlic—” I began.

  “No. They may have been right about vampires, but not about the means of destroying them. Those are mere superstitions,” Abe said. “Lucy had no reaction when I held up a cross. It was the same with garlic. She took it from me and ate it. Stabbing vampires in the heart can kill them instantly. Beheading works as well. There may be—”

  Abe abruptly fell silent as Captain Harper entered the wardroom, his crinkled face marred with concern.

  “It’s going to get rougher with these winds. You’ll likely be more comfortable in the cabins. In my experience, sudden storms like these usually die down quickly. Once it does, I can get us back on course.”

  We nodded and thanked him, but I was far more worried about the delay than the choppiness of our journey.

  We obliged the captain, resolving to ride out the storm in our cabins and to get as much rest as we could before hitting land.

  Once I was alone in my cabin, I reached into my bag to remove one of Father’s journals. Since I had been unable to locate his most recent journal, I had taken several other of his journals with me, hoping to stumble upon something of importance.

  The entry I skimmed through was an account of a biology conference he attended in Brussels several months prior to his death, but there was nothing of note in the entry.

  I closed the journal, frowning. I found it odd that none of his entries mentioned his research into vampires or his trips to Transylvania—I knew he had taken several in the year prior to his death. The entries were brief and perfunctory, but Father had been a detailed observer and note-taker.